James The Lesser Presents Vinny Lane

Vinny, Daria, and Quinn ride with Trent to Camp Grizzly. "You went to summer camp?"

"My parents made me." Daria looks out the window as she sits on the trunk next to Vinny. "It sucked. I can't believe they're making us go to this."

"I didn't even know they did five year reunions."

"Neither did I."

"Are you excited?"

"No."

"I bet you used to be the coolest kid in camp."

"I was the Weird Kid."

Of course she was. Would she have had it any other way?

"I still don't get why they're forcing me to go."

The way Jake and Helen were looking at each other I'm not surprised they sent you two off. "I get to see a bit of your childhood."

Daria's silence is all the response Vinny needs.Going back to this camp has her in a sour mood. Maybe I shouldn't have been so excited to come along.

When they arrive at the summer camp Daria, Quinn, and Vinny step out. "Trent, be back at, uh," Vinny turns to Daria who holds up five fingers. "Three thirty."

"Gotcha." Trent drives away leaving the three at the summer camp.

Quinn ducks away as soon as she can, saying she would find a different ride back, before leaving the other two behind.

Vinny is surprised when a girl walks over greeting Daria enthusiastically. "Daria! I'm so glad you made it!"

Daria stays near Vinny. "Hi, Amelia."

Amelia gets closer to the two. She looks up at Vinny. "Uh, I don't recognize you."

Daria takes his hand in hers. "He didn't go to camp. He's here to see the sick sadistic things my parents forced on me when I was younger."

Amelia's eyes go wide as she realizes who the boy is. "Oh! You brought your boyfriend? Lucky! I wish I could have done that."

Was she and Daria friends in camp? Daria's never mentioned her before. "Hi, I'm Vinny." He sticks the hand not being held by Daria out.

"I'm Amelia!" She shakes his hand vigorously before turning back to Daria. "I'm so glad you could make it! If you didn't, this whole trip would have been for nothing."

Vinny watches Daria's face trying to figure out exactly who Amelia was to her. Annoyed, not surprising. Most people annoy her. But why does this girl like Daria so much?

As they walk towards the nearest cabin, Amelia tells some stories about camp. They sounded like a lot of nostalgia was being sprinkled on them to make them seem less horrific than they probably were.

A man who looked way too excited to be there stood up on the porch of the cabin. "Hey-o Grizzlies! Welcome back to camp!"

A much older, balding, gentleman looked defeated standing next to him.

Vinny looks around and notices the cliques that formed.

Some girls who looked familiar were surrounding Quinn. "Fashion Fiends, version 1.0?"

Daria nods and tells the story of the first time they came to Camp Grizzly. "When they asked about me she told them I was a distant cousin."

"And you've been distant ever since." She nods. "So this is where that began. Wow."

Vinny realizes that summers spent at various artist communes and trips away with his parents weren't so bad compared to the hell that was a regular summer camp.

After some harassment from Skip which made Vinny even more sure Amelia was trying to sugarcoat stories of past experiences at the camp, lunch was served.

Skip bragged about his burgers. "Wow, you put them on a grill until they were done. How is that different from putting a burrito in the microwave?"

Skip pokes him in the chest with a spatula. "I don't like your attitude. You're sounding a lot like Camp Puma."

"I'm Camp Arts and Crafts." What's he gonna do about it?

Skip glares as he 'accidentally' drops Vinny's burger on the ground. "Oops, I'm sure it will clean right off."

Vinny smiles as Skip puts the patty on a bun. I've eaten a lot worse with Mystic Spiral. "Thanks, Skip." Vinny takes a bite and walks away leaving a fuming Skip behind.

Daria sits next to him. "I can give you half of mine."

Vinny takes another bite. "I've eaten worse." He looks over to see Skip is still watching him. "And it pisses ol' Skippy off if I keep eating."

Daria touches his hand lightly. "Skip was always over enthusiastic. Be careful. He might punch you."

Vinny smiles and bats his eyelashes at Daria. "Wouldn't want him to damage my pretty face would we?"

"I like it." She kisses him before digging in to her own burger.

Vinny steps back and lets Daria and some how Amelia tear Skip and the camp reunion apart.

When Daria walks back to him he takes her hand in his. "That was more entertaining than I thought it would be."

Daria is silent as Amelia walks over to the two. "Daria! That was amazing! I haven't felt so empowered in years! You're such an inspiration!"

Daria blocks Amelia's attempt to hug her. "I'm not."

"Yes you are!"

Vinny takes a step back as Daria's look changes from annoyance to something he couldn't comprehend. "Amelia, back off."

"But, Daria, you're my friend."

"I'm not your friend."

"Daria, I,"

Daria cuts her off. "Stop. You for some reason followed me around at camp. I didn't know why then and I don't get it now."

"We were friends."

"We were outcasts. Just because we were both outcasts didn't mean we were friends."

Whoa Daria, that was a little cold. A lot cold. Weren't we both outcasts?

Vinny sees Amelia's eyes start to water. Save this. I don't need this girl crying. I do not handle girls crying very well. "You were friends because you both realized that camp was stupid not because you were both outcasts."

Amelia smiles and the tears disappear. "Exactly! You must be a writer or something to come up with that!"

He smiles back. "I am an artist."

Amelia walks away in a good mood but leaves Daria in a bad one. "Why did you say that?"

He takes a step back from Daria. "Daria, you were crushing her. If there was a camera I could pause it at the exact moment her heart was ripped out and you ate it."

"So? You don't know her."

Damn, coming here put Daria in a mood all day. Now she's even worse. "I don't. But she knew you and thought you two were friends. How do you think that looks to some one else who was a bit of an outcast who became friends with you?"

Daria looks away before she responds. "That was different."

"Maybe." Vinny gets close, almost touching, before whispering in to her ear. "I guess she didn't have my pretty face."

Daria pushes him away playfully. "Dork."

Ha. She called me a name. The last time she called me a name it was four letters, began with a D, and it wasn't playful. "I am what I am. What does that say about you?"

"I love a dork. Maybe I need to reevaluate my life."

Vinny hugs her. "I like your life how it is right now." He kisses her when Skip makes a booing noise.

Vinny breaks the kiss and looks up at Skip. "Don't be jealous you're going home to the peanut butter jar and your neighbors dog."

Several of the other campers laugh as Skip storms off to the woods.

One of the campers, a blonde haired gentleman, walks over to the two. "You know, for being the Weird Kid, you turned out pretty cool."

Daria ignores him as he walks away.

Vinny shakes his head. "See Weird Kid? You are the coolest kid in camp."

She mumbles a shut up as the Tank shows up.

Vinny checks the time. It was four thirty, ish. "Only an hour late." From what I told him. Not bad for him.

"I was ready to go before we got here." Daria walks over to the Tanks and greets Trent.

"Yo. You kids ready to go?"

Vinny walks up to the two. "I am. I don't think Daria is. Her fan club might miss her."

Daria walks to the other side to open the door and get in as Trent laughs and coughs.

Vinny looks around and sees Quinn talking with her friends. He starts to walk over to make sure she had a ride home when Quinn skidaddled. "Ok, guess she has a ride."

A few hours later as they get back to the Morgendorffer residence, Vinny and Daria walk up to the house as Trent drives away.

Vinny stops Daria at the door. "Daria, today was cool. I'm glad I came with you."

"Really? I didn't even want to go."

"I got to see a part of you that you hide. You never told me about Camp Grizzly or Amelia."

"There was nothing to tell." He has to lean forward as Daria spoke softly. "I hated it, Quinn loved it, and my parents made me go until I was thirteen."

"Speaking of Quinn, are we sure she got a ride back?"

"She said she would." Daria kisses him goodnight before heading into the house and Vinny walks away.

The next morning he got an earful over the phone. "You didn't check to make sure she had a ride home? I left her in your responsibility!"

Vinny flinches as Helen yells over the phone. "I'm sorry Helen but she ran away as soon as we got there. Didn't want any one at the camp to know Daria was her sister. She disappeared with her friends and we never saw her again. Even if we wanted to check to make sure she had a ride back how could we? She would just run away if we tried to track her down." I did try but maybe I should have tried harder.

After some silence Helen replies. "That does sound like Quinn."

"She got home, right?"

"She did."

"So she did have a ride home."

"She was supposed to ride there and back with you, Daria, and your brother."

Her anger makes Vinny start to sweat. "That was my plan, our plan, too. She's the one who changed it as soon as we got there. Short of knocking her over the head and dragging her back in the van I don't think we could have made her come back with us." How grounded is Daria? "How grounded is Daria?"

"A week."

"But, Quinn,"

"Daria is eighteen. Trent is, however old he is. Quinn is not an adult. I understand she made it difficult but you have to put your foot down sometimes."

"She barely listens to you and Jake how the hell were we supposed to, um," She can't ground me. I can't be disrespectful just because she can't ground me. "Can I take back that last sentence?"

"No, you can't. I sympathize with the issues she gave you but she was your responsibility. I wasn't sure about trusting you and Trent to give my girls a ride out to the camp but so far my trust in the two of you has not been proven to be a bad thing."

Hell. This is what Hell is.

"Daria was perfect. She behaved. Quinn wouldn't listen to us even if we tried."

"Vinny, it doesn't matter. You three were to be responsible for her and you left her behind. Daria is grounded for a week."

"That's not fair. Daria didn't do any thing wrong."

"Besides leave her sister at the camp when she was the one responsible for Quinn."

"Because Quinn ran off and told us she'd get another ride."

"Did I say it was ok for Quinn to come home with someone else?"

Crap. "No, no you didn't."

Helen hears how his voice changes. "Now you understand where I am coming from."

"I do. I'm sorry."

"I'm sure you are. And so you don't think I'm being too harsh I also grounded Quinn for a week. She was supposed to listen to you three and she clearly didn't."

"Uh, um, I know I can't be grounded but, uh, sorry."

"I hope you understand one day. You feel it is unfair that Daria is in trouble but she was responsible for Quinn. Even if Quinn gave her trouble. She could have called to ask me if it was ok, explain what was going on, and then put Quinn on the phone so I could tell her no."

"And if she still refused?"

"Then Daria would not be grounded and Quinn would be grounded for two weeks."

I see her point, no matter how badly I don't want to. "We could have done that. I didn't think about that."

"You'll learn when you're older and have kids of your own."

Kids? I don't know about that. "I guess. Um, again, sorry, and uh, yeah."

"You have a good day Vinny."

"You too Helen." The two hang up.

Vinny goes up to his room and starts on a sketchbook to release what he was feeling.